What do you want for race mode?

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I'd like this post to be a sort of 'master list' of all the things the race community would like to be implemented. I know the devs are aware of some of these, but I thought it would be helpful to them and us to have all ideas and suggestions in one place. So I shall list them here, others can reply, and I'll update this original post. Feel free to tag them as 'critical' or 'would be nice' or whatever For now I'm going to type them off the top of my head, asking people in #racing

Visibility

Option to toggle player models on and off. Translucency option would be nice too.

Ghosts

Race against your own personal best time. Racing against other people's ghosts might be frowned upon as it will reveal routes, but personally i think this would be nice. You can see other people's routes easily enough by spectating them in game, and you'll notice other's routes as they pass you by in game as well.

Leaderboard system

We know that since the training update, the framework for this is in place, and modders have let us access the database so we can see our times. Crucially, it would be nice if times could be uploaded to this database as and when records are set, instead of at the end of the round. Default timelimit for race is 60 minutes which makes this quite annoying, so community race servers with custom timelimits are a must. Which leads me on to...

Timelimit

Ability to vote for this would be nice, either by defining a time or just having a selection to choose from. Once people don't have to worry about waiting until the end of the round for their new personal best to be saved, it'd be nice to be able to vote for al onger timelimit for thos maps that are longer, and shorter ones for the short maps so it doesn't feel quite so grindy. Let us vote!

Map editor related stuff

People have mentioned 'slick' surfaces, which would be fun. I also think a high friction surface for mapmakers to choose from would be fun as well, especially for climb maps. Could be fun to test anyway. Also official support for checkpoints and split times.

Let me know what I've missed and what you would like to see for this most awesome of game modes!

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Wallbug. My issues with race changed a lot during a year of racing, but this was ALWAYS annoying. You can't actually touch walls in reflex race. That is super uncool for players and cripples map making a lot, as every brush that isn't a rectangular cuboid is going to be a problem on slightly larger maps.

Lightmaps. I know the community workaround for avoiding huge lightmaps is now public knowledge, but anyhow, there should be an official solution, too (even if it's simply allowing map uploads without lightmaps).

Leaderboards. Leaderboards need to distinguish game modes (low gravity) and weapons used. The hashes for recognising changed maps are broken too and need fixing. Also, records should be uploaded after you set them, not at the end of the round.

Bonus-Stuff in no particular order:

Triggers and movers for more creative map making. It would actually be nice to have scripting possibilities for the game logic.

Textures would be cool for race, because they give you a better depth perception than flat surfaces, and are also easier to use than meshes (and I think they also look better from far away than meshes).

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storing the ghosts for like #1, #25, #100 etc and giving players access to them while playing would be a cool way for people to progress at a map. it would be way more intuitive than playing a map then going on youtube and watching the world record and trying to replicate it

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Kawumm has listed the major primary issues that are needed before anything else. And there are greater and more important ideas before me. Otherwise:

Backwards runs.
I would love to have a second leaderboard list for doing the maps backwards, you should be able to do the run backwards whilst your friends are doing a normal forward run. It would double the longevity of a maps life and interest.

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Kawumm has listed the major primary issues that are needed before anything else. And there are greater and more important ideas before me. Otherwise:

Backwards runs.
I would love to have a second leaderboard list for doing the maps backwards, you should be able to do the run backwards whilst your friends are doing a normal forward run. It would double the longevity of a maps life and interest.

A lot of maps probably aren't possible to run from finish line to start, but yeah that could be fun

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For those that played any Gran Turismo... yall already know what Im about to say !!!

LICENSE SYSTEM

License system like GT would be sooo dope. I think in GT it was like D class ---> C , B, A and then S class. Might be a nice single player mode for Reflex - just have a handful of maps that have certain times you must get for each license.

You could even run tournaments in Race mode like "A Class only" "S class only" etc. But yea I think that would be fun to be licensed in Race

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For those that played any Gran Turismo... yall already know what Im about to say !!!

LICENSE SYSTEM

License system like GT would be sooo dope. I think in GT it was like D class ---> C , B, A and then S class. Might be a nice single player mode for Reflex - just have a handful of maps that have certain times you must get for each license.

You could even run tournaments in Race mode like "A Class only" "S class only" etc. But yea I think that would be fun to be licensed in Race

Or like in Trackmania, where you get medals. I think there was also a special one for having the world record.

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- Race timer to reset when you die. Would be convenient for maps with a lobby room.

- Save/Load/Backup bind options which still keep the timer running single-segment style, would be useful for the type of maps with back and forth elements/risks. Backup would be reverting back to previous save point in case you inserted a shitty save.

- Noclip mode basically same as editor mode, but without the editing. For online servers where you want to give players freestyle skipping, but not the temptation of destroying the map. Race timer should also obviously reset along with this. This could also have the benefit of retaining game binds instead of swapping over to map editor binds.

- Brushes that can change player specific physics cvars, one or multiple at a time. For example gravity or friction.

- And speaking of friction, slick surfaces.

EDIT:

Triggers and movers for more creative map making. It would actually be nice to have scripting possibilities for the game logic.

Would also be nice to have some unique physics effects on them, like horizontal/vertical lift jumps. Regular gameplay could benefit from this as well.

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i need to preface that i know nothing about race and my movement is depressingly bad.

i have ran across only one race map i really liked, and yes i'm going to disappoint you again because i do not remember the name.

BUT, that is not actually important. What i liked was that you could beat the map with standard vanilla movement, but you could do much better with CPM movement. Which actually gave me an incentive to get better.

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i need to preface that i know nothing about race and my movement is depressingly bad.

i have ran across only one race map i really liked, and yes i'm going to disappoint you again because i do not remember the name.

BUT, that is not actually important. What i liked was that you could beat the map with standard vanilla movement, but you could do much better with CPM movement. Which actually gave me an incentive to get better.

Yeah, unfortunately the race community kind of caters to itself so few maps are easily completed by beginners with no knowledge of strafejumping, bhopping, circlejumps, etc... only a few maps qualified for my 'easy maps' server rotation. The vast majority of maps are also full of gaps, which I bitch about regularly They have their place of course, but it's quite limiting for new players.

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Hard to detect when an accelmeter widget is being used though, unfortunately. Not sure how it could be done.

Doesn't Reflex already keep track of active addons/widgets? Then it's a matter of keeping workshop curated and also making sure you can't have an add-on/widget enabled that's not available on workshop.

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Just FYI, with 1.2's formal use of custom rulesets, I've set up a new server called "Tokyo Drift (Slick Map Server)". The default ruleset sets gconst_playeronground_friction 0 to reproduce the "slick" effect from Q3 defrag. Currently, the timelimit is set to 600 so that the Steam tables (being used unofficially for the race leaderboards) are not affected.

Sadly, there wasn't much for race mode in 1.2. Maybe 1.3 will show some love for race mode?! I think we could come up with a HUGE wish list for race mode but, right now, the priority would be an official leaderboard since the current community workaround is kaput due to custom rulesets in 1.2.